Well me and CrankyB have been pretty busy over the last few months with life and gaming. Really busy. BUT I’m looking forward to getting in some holiday fun time and slowly working on the new ESO Indrik mount.

We’ve also been hanging out with a pretty eccentric group over the last few months. It’s been a blast.

My goals in game at this point are pretty simple. Working out a fun build to enjoy playing the game with, getting in game gold in relatively even handed manner, and hanging out with friends and family.

That’s right even Moms has been known to pop into ESO once in a while. It’s a great way for us to stay in contact what with time zones being a real pain now that I’m overseas.

CrankB or Vinny, has been having a blast running around with his Dark Elf Dragon Knight Vedrak. It’s pretty much all about fire and he seems to enjoy it quite a bit. He can also take a few hits to the face which fits his play style pretty well.

I’m still working on trying to enjoy playing Warden. Out of all the classes in the game it’s one of the few that I can play without getting motion sickness because of the lighting effects. That pretty much sells a class. It also has my friend Barry (the Eternal Guardian) that just roams around with me.

A few things I do want to write up though are generally ESO housing which I’ve been using for all kinds of cool stuff, and what some other folks are doing with it. I might even chat up about some of the role play stories we’ve been getting into in ESO which have been pretty entertaining. Until next time!

Since I’m not one of the people that just likes to back seat dev the games I’m playing and actually likes focusing on the positive, I haven’t had a lot to say about the games I’ve been playing lately.

If anyone cares to hear about that, I’d be happy to lay it out, but there’s more than enough of that on the interwebs.

Like I said, I want to focus on the positive and right now I’m positively overjoyed with GW2.

To be perfectly honest with you Heart of Thorns left a sour aftertaste that never quite went away. As much as I really wanted to stick with Guild Wars 2, HoT wasn’t my bag. Even a living story came and went without me logging in for more than a couple of sessions before just logging back out again upon seeing yet MORE mastery requirements.

Then after another session of WoW, I started shopping MMO’s again. That’s when I came across the Path of Fire videos. To me it seemed like they were teasing a return to what made GW2 awesome sauce. Thing is that for the first time in a long time devs actually delivered.

I managed to pre order in time and I haven’t looked back. So far I’ve unlocked The Renegade and the Jackal. Beyond that I’m looking forward to taking my time exploring the content, seeing the story and getting in some RP. I really don’t feel rushed to do anything in this expansion and I actually feel more rewarded when I slow down and just enjoy the trek.

Honestly I don’t think I’ve felt that way since first logging into GW2. Where you could just enjoy the content at your own pace and there’s no rush to the endzone.

It is really rewarding to just explore in this expansion as the maps are gorgeous. The zone gives you that ghostly feeling of ‘I’ve been here before’ if you ever managed to get out to Elona in the first Guild Wars.

Even the mounts are fun, well designed and actually add to game play instead of take focus in it or take away from it. Their animations and utility make them more than just something flashy that you sit on in your hub of choice.

When you cross a huge gorge on your Raptor for the first time, or unlock the Jackal and start blinking around, you’ll see what I mean. You can get right into combat with your mount and even unlock masteries that aid with getting that combat started as well as just adding to their mobility.

From the games that I’ve played this actually makes mounts out to be more of a useful tool than the thing you need to cross a huge map full of obnoxious mobs without spending an entire night just getting to town.

They dropped the meta events and let you do repeatable hearts OR huge bounty bosses. Which by the way, are butt kickers on timers and you have to wait for them to spawn. When they do, it’s good old fashioned fun.

To me PoF feels like a new map that expands on the base game and gives them plenty of room to expand from here. For the first time in two years I’m actually interested to see what they do with it.

Honestly I feel like they also made the mastery system in PoF a lot more manageable. The lower count of mastery points required takes out a lot of grind and pressure .

Masteries in PoF also feel more like something fun to do and an added challenge instead of something that’s blocking you from being able to enjoy the content because you’re two mastery points short. All the while that annoying star has been sitting there taunting you for months because you just can’t be bothered to look up a guide or video to unlock it.

Which honestly, for me, that’s awesome. Any time you’re expected to go out of the game to find the information you need to play the game, it really detracts from the fun and immersion.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m lazy, but I also don’t have a ton of time either. I’d much rather spend what time I do have doing things I want to do. Games that are a pre-requisite hell just don’t inspire me to hit that log in button.

Now building on something that actually adds to the current game play and will be useful in future content? Sign me the hell up!

To me Path of Fire feels like a return to the original Guild Wars 2 that I knew and loved. This expansion adds back the joy of just entering a map and wanting to explore every corner to see what you can find next.

Add that to a map that takes me back to the breathtaking vistas, interesting lore, and now mounts that are so much more than faster movement speed and you have a grand combination.

In the end, don’t take my word for it.

If you’re an explorer type of person and you’ve been on the fence about GW2 Path of Fire, take the plunge. Just watch out for the hydra. Trust me on the Hydra.

With Iokath looming in the coming days the Operative I’d been working on is about ready to jump into the new story. The Operative is still a crit machine and is quite fun to play in PvE.

Star Wars the Old Republic has definitely become my new Fallen Earth since I spend a good amount of my time salvaging and completing this and that.

I’m so happy to have the trooper done which is the last of the stories I had to complete. I also leveled everything past 55 to get both the Republic and Imperial diehard titles. I had about 5 levels to go on my bounty hunter so figured I’d knock those out.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next story is going to be like. The stories are definitely keeping me entertained.

Now I just have to decide which of my followers I want to invest in, build up my supply bases and grind Star Fortresses.

I’m still working on the guild Strong Hold and my own Strong Holds. I’m debating dumping my Coruscant Apartment that I’m not really using and getting a Tatooine bunker to use as my Agent’s ‘safe house.’ That and for some reason it’s easier to spell Tatooine.

Well progress continues. I have a few more pieces to build augment kits for and slap those in. Once that’s done I can derp around doing heroics and flashpoints or so. That’s about all the ambition I have for the game at the moment and trust me I’m just fine with that.

I did take a break from the grind to get armstech leveled a bit. I want to be able to make some of the armstech items from patterns that have dropped for me. The vibroknife would be very nice! Now I’m waiting for maintenance for a chance to finish getting it leveled up.

I should probably finish up the trooper story but I’m pretty motivated to work on my Operative. At least until I have her gear squared away and have her up to date on the story and ready for the new installment when it drops.

After reading around the net I’m focusing on Critical Augments from the Synthweaving tree and depending on what I get into I’ll follow up with Alacrity or Accuracy depending on what I need to do what I do. Since I don’t need gear for operations or pvp I can derp along on whatever does the most damage.

Though that’s mostly so that I can generate enough rep and credits to decorate the guild hall. That is mostly a pointless endeavor since it’s barely used but hell, it keeps me out of trouble and keeps me from talking to people.

Until next time I’ll be the last thing a lot of mobs see, if they see me coming.

Inspired by my Twitter feed I downloaded Sims 4 on the new compy and even picked up the new expansion. CrankyB challenged me to finally work on a Sims legacy, something which I’ve never managed to complete before. Mostly because I don’t like seeing my little Sims die, for some reason I feel like I have to keep them going.

So this time around I figured, well I’ll do a legacy but I’ll set one up that I won’t mind watching as their little time marches on. My pick? Well our commander in grief and his fams. Granted though the youngest I named Junior, and he gets some help along the way because kids are kids.

Now this is just a parody and meant to be fun, while also taking the edge off of recent events. So before anyone gets out the pitchfork let me just say “here’s some cake and funny screenshots.” So if you enjoy humor, I submit my Sims 4 family for your entertainment, they’ve been nothing but a blast for me.

The fams getting into their fresh new penthouse!

So meet the Trumps, the beginning of my Riches to Whatevs Sims 4 Fishbowl legacy.

What the hell is a fishbowl legacy? Pretty simple, all you have to do is let your sims roam free. You can do things here and there to nudge them in the right direction, but for the most part you just put them in a house and let ’em go. Most legacies last about 10 sims generations. So I’m going to see how long I can watch them go.

Also for the Riches to Whatevs, that part, I cheated about 100k simoleons to get them into a high rise in the rich part of town. After all, they are the Trumps. Whether they can make enough to keep themselves living the high life is more or less up to them. I’ll help them here or there along the way, but for the most part what they do is up to them.

Mr Trump

Pops in bunny slippers having a heated discussion with the potty.

Meet Mr. Trump. His traits are, Materialistic, Snob and Mean. It seemed appropriate at the time.

His current aspiration is to have the biggest most beautiful house, because he always has the best things. This means that he’s also business savvy, which should go a long way in helping him pay the rent on the fancy high rise they live in.

As for career, he’s currently working on the political career track that comes with the Sims 4 city expansion. I wanted to try it out and considering recent events, it just seemed laughably obvious.

Here is the run down on SimTrump:

He enjoys grilling burgers for breakfast,

Arguing with his toilet,

Playing with his cell phone and

surprisingly enough programming.

Yep, he’s the only Sim I’ve had that has spontaneously started learning programming on his own. That was pretty awesome.

Meet the Misses

Junior is training early for his boardroom adventures while Moms shoots some hoops.

Mrs. Trump is Family-Oriented, Ambitious and Unflirty.

For her I picked the City Native aspiration that comes with the city expansion just to try it out. This gives her the Home Turf trait that makes her happier when she’s in her ‘home neighborhood’. I like that idea since she can be pretty sad when she’s unemployed or not around her family.

The misses is pretty fun as well. She spontaneously joined a protest. Granted I asked her to watch it and then canceled the action once she arrived to see what would happen. But I was surprised to see her picketing in her heels and fancy duds.

Here is the general rundown for the misses:

She enjoys grilling in the morning

Basketball surprisingly enough

Hugging her family, a lot

and Bubble baths (sometimes on the deck of their penthouse)

It’s a thing apparently.

While she was going to be a stay at home mom at first, not being employed was making her pretty moody so now she’s trying out the Social Media career. I probably should have had Mr Trump working on that one, but this is just as fun.

Little Junior

Junior is a fun kid, proving that the AI for children in the Sims 4 makes them downright adorable. Here he is in his room having some quality duck time while Dad works on programming.

Junior is still in the child life phase for the simmies in Sims 4 and I almost forgot to make sure that he had some fun toys to play with. Now he has a dino, a toy box and a ducky to go along with his cell phone and computer.

The rundown on Junior:

surfs kid friendly websites,

plays computer games,

dances a lot,

watches kid tv,

And loves eating burgers out of the fridge.

So my first generation is on the go. I do have to decide if the penthouse will be used through out the generations, or if I should see if they can come up with enough simoleons on their own to move out into a big family mansion. This would give them enough room to keep heirs and spares under one roof.

I suppose it depends on the traits that Junior ends up with. I’ll go with letting him get one trait from Mom, one trait from Dad and one completely random trait.

I can honestly say that this is a big challenge for me because I usually spend my time in Sims games building or micromanaging my sims. Honestly though this mostly hands off approach has lead to some rather interesting adventures and I’m looking forward to seeing what my sims are up to next.

As much as I enjoy BDO I’m going to step back from it for a few weeks. Maybe I’ll get back and try the new grind channels or maybe I’ll find a new shiny, who knows.

For the time being I’m spending more time with CrankyB and zee little one. She’s almost 16 months old now and she’s all over the place. It’s an adventure taking care of a toddler, but it’s so worth it.

We might end up in Diablo 3 for a bit, do a little bit of the Seasons. Beyond that though we’ll probably take a break from the MMO grind. CrankyB has several games in his back log that he wants to catch up on. Personally I love watching him play Hitman and seeing all the trouble he gets into.

He wants to have a few more rocket launcher duels in Saints Row, but I can’t say I’m feeling it. That and I don’t have it loaded on the new machine.

All in all though it might not be a bad idea for me to just play some games that I can shut down and walk away from. With everything I need to do, that sounds really good right about now.

As much as I’d love to take a peek at Legion, I’m not sure I want to start another MMO again for a while. That and when you’re not there at launch there’s always so much that you miss. Who knows really.

For now I’m taking it easy. Until next time, enjoy whatever you love, but always remember that moderation is actually a good thing.

Ask anyone in my guild and they’ll tell you that I’m a sucker for dressing up my characters in BDO. I don’t even dress myself this well in real life.

I’m currently working on trying to get the latest costume in BDO, but I need to fish up a bunch of laundry for that. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m trading like a mad woman to make enough silver for gear I’d be fishing for them 24/7.

I’ll get it eventually though, it’s just going to take next to forever.

As it stands I’m also debating on taking up farming again to get the components I need to make extraction crystals for my Ranger’s bow. Those would be quite handy indeed.

One at a time I’m working on getting enough amity with the trade managers I use regularly so that I can get more tries when trading. That saves a bunch of energy when you can get up to 7 tries. As long as I don’t do any smuggling I should be able to keep up that amity which is a big bonus.

My Calpheon Crate business is also moving right along, though I did nerf myself a bit by pulling the cp from Shakatu. Thing is I kind of needed it for storage and to expand my trade network in the old kingdoms. Having some of the higher paying imperial delivery areas unlocked has been awesome.

It is however a bit of a balancing act between setting up crating activities and doing imperial delivery. Doing one means you’re not doing as much of the other. Imperial Delivery is a lot more active and if you have time it’s grand. Crate trading is handy when you don’t have as much time as you just have workers boxing up trade items then you haul them off to make silver.

Though it helps if you also process the goods yourself, and that can mean spending your mornings or evenings at the bank doing processing.

For me, doing the Imperial Trading is a lot more fun because I’m always on the move. In the end I’ll probably stick with that, but who knows.

At the moment things are coming together in BDO. Well aside from the fact that I really need to put some more levels on the Witch, but I’ll get to it.

She’s sitting at 51 and I’m working on getting her geared up. At the moment she has pretty much what she needs, I just need to buff it up. Everything needs levels from her armor to her horse.

It’ll happen slowly but surely.

So far the Witch has been a pretty handy addition to the guild as well. It makes scroll nights go pretty fast even with less than a full group. Disco balls also go REALLY fast. But that’s probably due more to the 55’s we have hitting them more than my DPS. On the bonus side though the heals alone are saving us all a ton on pots.

GrimFire is also fitting into RP in the guild since a combat medic is something the guild could really use. RP wise they have fighters and staff, but there’s not really a healer so that’s a good fit.

I’m also setting up an infirmary to add a little bonus RP to the server. I’ll be in the same place my guild hangs out but at least it’s something to do. The nice thing about having a medic around is that people get a chance to RP out a wounded character getting treatment.

All kinds of chaos can happen in and around an infirmary.

Once I get that going I plan on working on a journal for GrimFire. So far she’s becoming an interesting character.

Well it’s time to get back to fishing so I can make enough to get my armor repaired. So I can blow it out again and build up failstacks.

I love the AFK features, the leveling isn’t bad at all, the open world pvp isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I finally have a class that I like.

The only problem is that the Ninja and Kunoichi will be released in the NA/Euro version next week. I would like to play this class but honestly I’m thinking that I’ll want to finish building up my Ranger first. I still have a long way to go in completing the armor and weapon upgrades just for that class.

While I will be able to swap the armor back and forth, I’ll have to start at zero again with the weapons unless I farm up some serious cash and just outright buy better weapons. Honestly at this point that sounds like a much better option. Mostly because my level fu with weapons is beyond awful. I have some of the worst upgrade luck ever. I mean really, it’s beyond bad.

There is also some other time sinks I would have to work around like figuring out how to play the class, deciding how I want her to look, and yes adding on the levels.

While it would probably be worth it to at least try out the class, I’m still on the fence about whether the combat style and costume customization will be quite right for me.

Until I decide I might as well keep working on my Ranger. She’s managed to hit 50 and I really should start working on dailies and scrolls. Not to mention finding a guild that won’t make me cringe when I log in.

Yes I have a level 50 character with no guild.

Thing is that getting into just any guild is easy. Getting into a guild with people that you actually want to spend time with, that takes a little more time and effort.

I plan on spending a LOT of time in BDO. There is still a lot that this game has to offer. I also want a stable guild with fun people in it to share that experience with.

Since I have zero interest in BDO’s pvp scene, that narrows down the list a bit. I’m not a fan of PvX guilds since they end up going where the wind blows and it’s usually no where near where I’m at. A PvE guild probably wouldn’t put up with my horsing and constant search for the occasional RP hotspot.

I would like to find another RP guild like I had in Fallen Earth way back when. I just have no idea if I will ever get back to that place where I could just log into the guild, maybe get into some RP, maybe go grind, but always just have folks to chat with.